George F. Fuller
Encyclopedia
George F. Fuller was a 20th century industrialist in Worcester, MA, though he became most famous through his philanthropic foundation.
in 1862. He had one younger sister. His father was a Civil War veteran, who after the war found work in a shoe-making factory. Service in the war caused Fuller's father to suffer life-long health problems, issues that eventually lead to his death in 1880. George Fuller was only eighteen years old. In the years after his father's death, Fuller assumed financial responsibility for his sister and widowed mother. Though he had the aptitude and desire to go to college, he put the idea aside in an effort to support his family. He took a job at the Worcester Drop Forge Works where he worked as an accountant. The Worcester Drop Forge Works would soon become the Wyman-Gordon Company, which became a leading manufacturer of bicycle parts, railroad couplers, copper wire, and automobile and aircraft parts. It would be in Wyman-Gordon Company that George Fuller would make his name.
In 1919, after the death of company founder Lyman Gordon, George Fuller was named president and treasurer of the Wyman-Gordon Company. He had already done much to improve the “quality and durability of forged metal.” His most famous and successful accomplishment was to develop a heat treating process making steel strong enough to be used in train couplings and the first automobile crankshafts
. As president of the Wyman-Gordon Company, Fuller is generally considered, along with Worcester Lunch Car Company founder Charles Palmer, a pioneer of the second wave of industry in Worcester, turning the city into a manufacturing center. Fuller also served as a trustee of Worcester Polytechnic Institute
and as a director of the Mechanics National Bank of Worcester.
Life
Fuller was born in Grafton, MassachusettsGrafton, Massachusetts
Grafton is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,765 at the 2010 census. Grafton is the home of a Nipmuc village known as Hassanamisco Reservation, the Willard House and Clock Museum, and the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine...
in 1862. He had one younger sister. His father was a Civil War veteran, who after the war found work in a shoe-making factory. Service in the war caused Fuller's father to suffer life-long health problems, issues that eventually lead to his death in 1880. George Fuller was only eighteen years old. In the years after his father's death, Fuller assumed financial responsibility for his sister and widowed mother. Though he had the aptitude and desire to go to college, he put the idea aside in an effort to support his family. He took a job at the Worcester Drop Forge Works where he worked as an accountant. The Worcester Drop Forge Works would soon become the Wyman-Gordon Company, which became a leading manufacturer of bicycle parts, railroad couplers, copper wire, and automobile and aircraft parts. It would be in Wyman-Gordon Company that George Fuller would make his name.
In 1919, after the death of company founder Lyman Gordon, George Fuller was named president and treasurer of the Wyman-Gordon Company. He had already done much to improve the “quality and durability of forged metal.” His most famous and successful accomplishment was to develop a heat treating process making steel strong enough to be used in train couplings and the first automobile crankshafts
Crankshaft
The crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank, is the part of an engine which translates reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation...
. As president of the Wyman-Gordon Company, Fuller is generally considered, along with Worcester Lunch Car Company founder Charles Palmer, a pioneer of the second wave of industry in Worcester, turning the city into a manufacturing center. Fuller also served as a trustee of Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester Polytechnic Institute is a private university located in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the United States.Founded in 1865 in Worcester, WPI was one of the United States' first engineering and technology universities...
and as a director of the Mechanics National Bank of Worcester.